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African American History 1950 to 1970 & Civil Rights Movement

Producer/director, Spike Lee. The Birmingham Campaign was launched in 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists were soon jailed... but it was the participation of the children that advanced the momentum of the Birmingham movement. They marched alongside the adults and were taken to jail with them as well. The 16th St. Baptist Church was close to the downtown area, it was an ideal location to hold rallies and meetings. On Sunday morning, Sept.

Originally produced in 1967, this classic cinema verite fim captures the awakening of the civil rights movement as it challenged the nation to change its ways. Originally rejected by three major networks for being too converversial, the film captures the struggles of the pastor of an all-white Lutheran church in Omaha, Nebraska as tries to get his congregation to reach out to their fellow black Lutherans, only to find a wall of resistance among his church. Conceived, directed and edited by Bill Jersey & Barbara Connell. Originally released as a documentary film in 1967. 58 min.

Uses first-hand testimony of participants and archival footage to present a compelling look at the battle for civil rights in the South, recalling the crises in Montgomery, Little Rock, Birmingham, and Selma. It depicts the struggle through the experiences of its "foot soldiers," who rode where they weren't supposed to ride, walked where they were forbidden to walk and sat where they weren't supposed to sit and stood their ground until they won their freedom. Dist.: Direct Cinema. 1992. 38 min.

The account of a reverse discrimination court case over the firing in 1989 of a white teacher in a Piscataway, New Jersey high school because of her race. Shows how this court case became a national battle for affirmative action and how affirmative action preference advocates paid the white teacher $450,000 to drop her case in order to avoid a Supreme Court decision that would potentially invalidate all affirmative action programs in the United States.

Explores the historical roots of affimative action and the current debate over its usefulness. Looks at several different affirmative action programs including the Univ. of California, Berkeley, the U.S. Army, federal aid to minority businesses, and affirmative action in the Chicago Police Dept. Includes archival footage and features interviews with a wide array of academic scholars. Dist.: Films Media Group. 1996. 56 min.

Produced and directed by Susan Bellows. Produced by Blackside, Inc. 57 min ea. In this Affluent Society. In the early 1960s, hundreds of Kentucky coal miners are displaced by machines and strike out at their former employers. Millions of others displaced by machines across Appalachia and the rural South head north to begin a new life in Chicago, where they face overcrowded tenements and schools, and the familiar inequities of segregation.

Don't be a sucker / U.S. War Department (1947, 18 min.) -- Integration, Report 1 / Andover Productions (1960, 21 min.) -- Let us break bread together / City of New York, Board of Education (1954, 26 min.) Don't be a sucker: Uses the example of Nazi Germany to drive home the point that American's should not be fooled by people who wage a war against minorities. It warns them not to be "a sucker" and to live in harmony despite differences of color, race or religion.

Documentary about the escalation and diversity of the anti-Vietnam War protest movement on the homefront. Includes conversations with Vietnam vets, teenagers, and Afro-American militants. Graphically depicts the hightened incidents of mass protest and police repression. Originally produced as a documentary film in 1969. 33 min.

This radical anti-negro, anti-communist, anti-civil rights propaganda documentary was made shortly after the Watts riots. Employing newsreel footage this film traces the methods used by communists to take over China, Cuba and Algeria, and then attempts to demonstrate that the same tactics have been used by the U.S. civil rights movement. 78 min.